The 2Africa consortium, comprised of China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC, announced the addition of four new branches to the 2Africa subsea cable system.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been selected to deploy the new branches in Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, and Angola as well as a new landing point to southeast Nigeria. The new branches, together with the recently announced extension to the Canary Islands, will increase the number of 2Africa landings to 35 in 26 countries.
This results in improved connectivity into and around Africa. Service providers can utilize the available capacity offered by 2Africa subsea cable on a fair and equitable basis at carrier-neutral data centers or open-access cable landing stations. This will encourage and support a healthy internet ecosystem.
Aiming to be the largest subsea cable project in the world, 2Africa will deliver faster and more reliable internet service to each country where it lands. Expecting to go live in late 2023, the 2Africa consortium has made considerable progress in planning and preparing for the deployment of the cable.
In fact, most of the subsea route survey activity is now complete. ASN is ready to deploy the first segment in 2022 as it started manufacturing the cable and building repeater units in its factories in Calais and Greenwich.
One of 2Africa’s key segments, the Egypt terrestrial crossing that interconnects landing sites on the Red and the Mediterranean Seas via two completely diverse terrestrial routes, has also been completed ahead of schedule.